The highest-quality domestic race in Hong Kong’s racing history played out with former world #1 Golden Sixty regaining a place in the world’s Top Five and an unprecedented three horses from the region filling spots in the Top Ten.
In claiming the seventh G1 success of his amazing career in the eagerly awaited Stewards’ Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday [Jan 29], HK’s biggest prize-money earner moved up to #4 (from #7) on the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary Global Rankings with a bump of 126pts.
Runner-up Romantic Warrior and third-placed California Spangle also feature in the Top Ten, at #8 and #10 respectively. While Hong Kong has enjoyed plenty of talented horses, never before have so many clustered at the top end of any world rankings – and when one considers that four of the Top Ten are now retired (Flightline, Baaeed, Life Is Good and Anamoe), then Hong Kong has an even more formidable presence among active performers.
As those retired horses fall off the charts after the 150-day cutoff – horses exit the list if there is more than 150 days since their most recent Group-race performance – chances are the HK trio will assume even higher status.
Indeed, as Golden Sixty is currently the second top-rated active horse, he may well regain #1 status unless star stayer Kyprios makes an appearance sooner rather than later.
Few races in Hong Kong have ever been as keenly anticipated as the Stewards’ Cup over a mile, a race that featured a clash of three world-class equine talents. In the event, Golden Sixty came out on top in convincing fashion, being produced between horses by jockey Vincent Ho to overwhelm his rivals in the closing stages with his trademark turn of foot.
Having covered the final 400 metres in a slick 44.63s for a final time of 1m33.99s for the 1,600m, the remarkable seven-year-old scored by a length over Romantic Warrior, who was suffering only the second defeat of his life. After being outpaced, the runner-up kept on well in the manner of a horse who needs further.
Front-running California Spangle was third, a further length and a quarter away, enable to withstand the late onslaught.
As befits such a clash of the titans, a TRC Computer Race Rating of 130 represents the highest ever achieved by Golden Sixty, for whom an overseas trip could now be on the cards. He has been entered in the Dubai Turf on World Cup might at Meydan on March 25, with Japan’s prestigious Yasuda Kinen further down the line on June 4.
“I still would like to go but we will see how he pulls up,” said trainer Francis Lui, speaking to the Hong Kong Jockey Club media team.
Vincent Ho added: “We have entered the Dubai 1800 on turf as well, so that’s another thought. I think it’s a good race for him and it can be a prep race for him if we go to Japan because it’s left-handed and he can get used to the heat and all that. There are a few options for us.”
On the other side of the world, Art Collector (+199pt, #23 from #81) was the surprise winner of the $3m Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park. The Bill Mott-trained six-year-old claimed the biggest success of his career with an emphatic 4½-length victory over Defunded in the $3m highlight. He now stands on the verge of the world’s Top 20.
It was a memorable day in more ways than one for Art Collector’s 35-year-old jockey Junior Alvarado, who also rode the 2,000th winner of his career on Broadway Force in Race 5 on the Pegasus card.
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques.
Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.
Since we started collating racehorse rankings in 2014, the top three horses by weeks at #1 are Winx (162), Enable (56) and American Pharoah (42).
• Visit the Hong Kong Jockey Club website
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